mental

There’s nothing like confidence to make life run smoother and easier for us. If we lack that, all else seems to be insufficient. If we lack that one integral part, it won’t matter how good we look, how skilled or successful we are. We’ll simply be too blind to notice any of it. When it comes to our bodies, getting in shape is quite a challenge mostly because it’s very easy to give up. We hit a bump on the road and then the whole effort seems wasted and silly, so we simply stop, give up, and get back to the old way. But is there a way to change that? Is there a way to finally get fit and boost our confidence? Absolutely, and we’re here to give you a few tips on how to do that.

Make it Easy for Yourself

If you have to trudge over half the city to get to the gym, hate the crowd who goes there, and have a trainer who doesn’t pay enough attention to you, then how on earth are you supposed to stick to it? If working out requires too much time, mental strain, and planning then you’re never going to stay consistent. Yes, you do need to get stubborn to stick to your plan, but you also need to be smart. So, make it easy. Go to a gym that’s near or work out at home, find the time where you’re unlikely to be bothered or interrupted, find a workout that you like.

Stop With the Negativity

In addition to training you to give up without trying and making you feel bad when there’s really no reason to, negative words and “I’m just so ugly” are merely… unproductive. It leads nowhere and you’re much better than that. Instead of “I can’t” and “I look awful,” why not try something like “I know I’m strong enough to reach the goals I want to reach.” Learn how to be confident and stick to it.

Pick Something You Like Doing

Gym not your thing? That’s cool, why not try dancing? Maybe you’d really enjoy the relaxation yoga provides, or maybe you’d be really into krav maga. Find something that excites you and find a good crowd to inspire you and you’ll keep coming back. It’s really all about that Australian approach here – Aussies are really fit, yet they don’t really have more average gym time than any other nation. So, how are their bodies so sexy? Well easy, they’ll surf, they’ll play volleyball, they’ll swim, they’ll hike. They’re outdoorsy and active and simply do what they like doing.

Forgive Failure

Sometimes you’re going to feel weak and you’re going to give in and eat that chocolate cake you promised you won’t touch. And you know what? This will keep happening occasionally, so stop sweating it. It’s not a big deal and it doesn’t mean your effort is ruined. Simply get back to good habits and relax. It’s okay to stumble sometimes.

Consult Professionals

With latest technological advancements, cosmetic procedures are now safer and easier to do, and they’re a good way to supplement your efforts. If you’ve been struggling with diets and exercising and you just can’t seem to lose those last few pounds, or if you’ve given birth and have a lot of loose skin, you can try a having a tummy tuck procedure to solve this problem. Similarly, if you’re worried about your tuberous breasts or have a different kind of imperfection that’s making you insecure, you can always talk to your doctor and ask for advice. You’re not alone in your struggles and if you want to try a treatment to help you out and make you feel better in your own skin, go for it.

Take the School Approach

You know how you always used to do better when you studied a little bit every day rather than cramming the whole night for a test that’s tomorrow? Yeah, well, exercise is kind of similar. Instead of working out two times a week for a long time, it’s actually a lot easier to exercise every day. The workout doesn’t need to be longer than 20-30 minutes, and this makes it both easy to fit into your schedule and it trains your body to get used to being active and to crave that daily workout.

Distract Yourself With Something Fun

A workout could be the perfect chance to listen to your favourite upbeat tunes, or to catch up on a show. Why not watch TV while you ride your stationary bike? Yes, being focused solely on exercise is great, but sometimes we just need a distraction and that’s okay.

Remember it’s a Lifestyle Change

And of course, while diet might not sculpt you and give you a toned body, it’s definitely the most important bit for actual weight loss. You need to create a calorie deficit to shed pounds, however, you need to have the right approach to it. Forget about fad diets and see a nutritionist if you can. Don’t starve yourself, don’t see dieting as something you’ll do only until you’ve lost excess weight. It’s a lifestyle change, it’s there to make you healthy.

Choose Healthy Over Skinny

It’s cool to go down a dress size, but if you turn your diet into “I want to be thin,” you’ll be disappointed. Rather than skinny, make your goal healthy. You want to feel good, you want to have strength. Trust us, once you adopt that attitude you’ll be a lot happier and look a lot better.

Here’s the gist of everything: you don’t have to be good at working out and dieting, you just have to do it. You’ll stumble and won’t always feel like you’re making progress, but stay consistent. That’s the real key here, simply being as consistent as possible and believing in yourself.

Scarlet is a passionate writer and regular contributor at highstylife.com interested in fashion, lifestyle, and health. She loves traveling, you could say that she is a real travel addict, especially when she has a chance to visit some exotic destinations. She would tell you that inspiration can be found in the most unexpected places.

Are you interesting in learning more about your health? Perhaps you want to understand how to get your body in better shape, or maybe you’re fascinated by what makes your body tick. If that’s the case, there are a few different paths you can take to learn more about your health. But before we get to the right paths to knowledge let’s consider one that you should avoid.

Make sure that you don’t start by conducting research online. If you type in any symptoms or signs of health issues online within five minutes, you are likely to diagnose yourself with a dangerous, perhaps life-threatening disease. The reason for this is obvious. Some of the most basic symptoms can crop up for no reason, or they can be the first sign of a fatal illness. But unless you have expert knowledge in this area, there’s no way to tell which it is. This brings us to the first pathway you can take to learn more about your health.

Study Medicine

If you want to learn more about your health and your body the best option is always going to be to study medicine. You probably think that you need to get great grades in school and have a massive IQ to study medicine, but that’s not true. Indeed you can take an RN to BSN online course with very little experience or existing knowledge. This will provide you with key information and give you the chance to get first-hand experience working in a hospital with patients. It is easily one of the best ways to learn more about the human body and your own health.

Talk To A Nutritionist

Of course, if you are interested in the state of your health specifically; you might want to think about speaking to a nutritionist. After all, ninety percent of health issues can be resolved by fixing your diet. You really are what you eat; whether you’re eating too much dairy, have an undiagnosed allergy to gluten or need to cut back on the red meats a nutritionist will be able to help.

Celebs regularly start by speaking to a nutritionist when they want to lose weight. So, if you are eager to get in shape, this could be a great place to begin.

Pick Up A Book

We definitely think that you need to stay offline if you want to learn more about the health. It’s impossible to ignore the scaremongering articles, and even positive health posts could lead you to weird sections of the web where you’ll be self-diagnosed with a fatal illness. However, you can still research and read. The books and resources that intern doctors read each night are readily available from sites like Amazon. If you’re interested in how your body works, why not read a few? Who knows it might encourage you to pursue a late career in medicine.

I hope this advice helps you find your own path to more knowledge about your health.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

If there is one goal which we would all generally agree to being important, it is to remain as fit and healthy as possible for as long as possible. However, put this way, it doesn’t really tell us much. The truth is that there is much more to it than it at first appears, and getting to grips with that is the first essential step towards understanding it more fully. As it turns out, anyone who wants to improve their health in any big and lasting way will benefit massively from understanding a little about the psychology behind it all. Fortunately, such psychology is easy to understand and will help you with any health goals you hope to achieve. Let’s take a deeper look into the world of psychology to understand the relationship between mind and body a little better.

A Two-Way Relationship

It is often helpful to think of the relationship between health and mind as a yin and yang situation. In one sense, being healthy helps to promote a more positive psychological outlook, and improves mental well-being. But at the same time, fostering a healthy mindset is always going to improve the effectiveness of any decisions you make regarding your physical health. It might be beneficial to visualize the mind and body relationship as a swinging door: no matter which way you push it, it comes back the other way with equal force.

Alternately, you might want to go the way of certain spiritual traditions, and consider the mind and body to really just be two parts of the same machine. Seen from this perspective, it makes little difference what you do for one or the other. Improving your mind strengthens your body, and boosting your physical health likewise brings about more positive and beneficial states of mind. We all already know that getting the mind and body in harmony can have hugely positive effects. This is made all the easier by considering that they are really just one thing anyway. Understand the basic nature of this relationship as well as you can; it will help you no matter what you attempt to do to improve your health.

Building A Strong Foundation

Seen from that viewpoint, it is clearly beneficial to try and build a strong foundation from both the physical and mental sides of the equation. If you look at http://trainingtips.com/strong-foundation/ you will get a good idea of what we are going for here. The better the foundation, the starting point, the more effective any subsequent actions to improve one’s health will be, so this is worth looking into at your earliest convenience. In truth, there is practically no end to what you can do to bring about this harmonious foundation – but there are particular first steps which are worth attempting.

For a start, it is a good idea to try and clear both mind and body of any particularly toxic substances. In the physical realm, this means avoiding any genuine toxins which your body probably doesn’t appreciate having inside it. In many cases, this is extremely difficult to do, especially if those toxins are highly addictive substances which you have been dependent on for some time. If this applies to you, consider visiting somewhere like www.orlandorecovery.com to try and rid yourself of the addiction. It might take a long time, but it will be worth it.

On the mental side, getting rid of toxins means working to remove the basis of unhelpful and damaging thought patterns. This, again, is for many people the work of a lifetime. You might even say that useless mental chitter-chatter is something of an epidemic human disease. Nonetheless, you can make small changes each and every day to gradually do away with these types of thoughts. Take up a meditation routine, even just half an hour a day, and you will be well on your way with this side of the bargain.

Keeping The Balance

Your main mission now is to continue to try and keep the balance between body and mind as you work on improving your health. There are countless fitness and health goals which you might be set on achieving. Regardless of what yours are, you should try to ensure that you always work towards them with both body and mind in the center of the issue at all times. This will ensure that you do not focus too heavily on one to the detriment of the other – a common but often unseen flaw which upends many attempts to improve one’s health. Put simply, you need to work on both improving your physical and mental well-being at the same kind of pace.

The Physical Side

When it comes to looking at improving your physical health, there are a number of easy and common changes which you might want to make. If you feel that you have become sluggish, then the first port of call will be to simply get moving in whatever way you can. This might mean going for a jog every other day, or it might even be something much smaller, to begin with. Whatever it takes, make sure you go at a speed which will not cause too much stress to either side of the equation. Take it as slow as is necessary in order to enjoy it, but as fast as you need to in order to see those changes you want to see.

The Mental Side

Of course, in tandem with this, you will want to think about tending to your mental side. This means continuing with that daily meditation practice, for a start. But it’s also a case of keeping stress at bay, killing it the moment it arises within you. This practice alone will do plenty in terms of keeping you centered and healthy, and you might be surprised at what a difference it really does make overall.

Health only comes to you when you focus in a balanced way on both your body and mind. Focus on those aspects of wellbeing which tend to both, such as good nutrition and plenty of rest, and you will be well on your way to greater health.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

While often used as a comedic device, the idea of being able to “walk off” an injury is nevertheless a persistent one. Trip and fall while out running? Walk it off! Stretch too far during a yoga class? Walk it off! However, here are some reasons you shouldn’t walk off an injury.

The whole idea is based on a fundamental lack of understanding about the human body. While there are some injuries which are temporary – momentary spasms of pain that will recede on their own – there is a huge threat caused by trying to “walk off” an injury that can’t be walked off. Of course, you have no way of knowing if the injury you have sustained can be walked off before you try it – but what happens if you give it a go, and what harm are you doing if you’ve calculated incorrectly?

Think About R.I.C.E.

You’re more than likely aware of what “R.I.C.E” means in an injury capacity, but if not, let’s be clear – it’s not this:

What it actually stands for is the way that you should handle an injury:

R – RestI – IceC – CompressionE – Elevation

While you might think you will always know which injury needs the R.I.C.E. treatment and which doesn’t, you’re probably incorrect. R.I.C.E. is not just for those sudden, sharp injuries like turning your ankle – it should also be used for gradual stress injuries, that you might not even notice are building up.

As a rule, if you feel persistent pain – no matter how mild – in any area of your body, it needs to be R.I.C.E-d.

However, learning about the AlgaeCal plant calcium side effects and researching the latest exercise techniques does not mean that you have the power to see into the future. How do you know the pain you’re experiencing in the moment is the kind that won’t benefit from rest?

Put simply: you don’t. It’s great that you have educated yourself on the supplements you should be taking if you exercise regularly and know your way around dealing with workout aches and pains, but you can’t predict the future. It’s far better to stop the moment you feel pain and make a clear-headed assessment of what’s happening to you.

Pain Isn’t Embarrassing

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the “walk it off” line is often used in comedic terms – i.e. someone walks into a door and is told to “walk it off”. This suggests that pain is an embarrassment, the fault of the person who is feeling the pain.

This isn’t the case. It might be embarrassing to trip over while running, but the pain itself should never be a cause for shame. Bodies go wrong. We make mistakes, miscalculate, and hurt ourselves – it’s completely natural. What is embarrassing is trying to carry on when your body is telling you to stop, thereby inevitably making life worse for yourself. Don’t fall into this trap; if something hurts, stop, evaluate, and then make a decision on how to proceed – no matter what anyone else thinks.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

Our minds are made to handle a lot of stress – we’re built to be able to withstand stressful situations. However, when we come under a lot of stress on a constant basis, that’s when problems can arise. The fact is that study after study has shown that high levels of stress on a constant basis, such as from a job that comes with a lot of pressure, or an upsetting situation at home, can make mental health problems more likely. There is a link between stress and mental health, but it’s not exactly clear cut – there are a lot of ins and outs to it. Want to learn more about the link between excessive stress and mental health problems like OCD, anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia? Then read on, as all is about to be revealed.

Does stress automatically lead to mental health problems?

Despite the fact that stress can, in some instances, cause mental health problems, it’s important to realize that it doesn’t automatically cause them. In some instances, stress can be a contributing factor to why a person develops an anxiety disorder, for instance, but that doesn’t mean high levels of stress will always lead to mental health problems. The fact is that being under pressure is a normal part of life – it can drive us to work harder, be more productive, and reach our goals. Problems arise when you begin to feel overwhelmed by stress.

Is stress the only factor linked to mental health issues?

Stress isn’t the only cause linked to mental health problems. Most conditions, such as schizophrenia, are also linked to genetics, brain structure, neurotransmitters, and triggers, one of which is stress, but there are also others like drugs and alcohol, for instance. A lot of mental health problems also have different levels, so for instance, there are different types of schizophrenia, ranging from mild to severe. If someone becomes withdrawn, doesn’t want to socialize, and struggles with the day to day aspects of lift, but isn’t having delusions, then it may be mild schizophrenia, instead of a more severe level of this condition. Sometimes, more mild version of a condition are linked to stress, whereas more severe ones are caused by other factors, although this isn’t always the case.

Can stress make existing mental health problems worse?

Studies have shown that stress can excavate existing mental health problems, making them worse. For instance, say you suffer from depression, studies have shown that when your stress levels are high thanks to a hectic job, family problems, money worries, or something else, it can make your depression worse. The same applies to other mental health problems, from OCD and anxiety to bipolar disorder. So if you suffer from an existing mental health problem, it’s important to keep your stress levels to a minimum by having an outlet for stress such as jogging, practicing yoga, or doing a calming activity like reading, adult coloring, or completing brain puzzles.

There is a link between stress and mental health, but it’s not a clear-cut one and is tends to differ from person to person.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

Many people around the world feel that stress is part and parcel of living in a busy and hectic world. Therefore, coping mechanisms are sometimes seen as a fruitless pursuit because tension is experienced in many different ways and aspects of our lives. It’s almost as if defeatism is commonplace and people just accept the fact that their lives will be full of anxiety and nervousness. Often the best way to cope with stress is to release the energy by being totally open and talking about yourself and the experiences you go through. Especially for someone suffering from mental disorders, storytelling or general diary writing in the form of a blog gives individuals the chance to be open and honest, in a bid to hopefully connect with the world. It may seem like a drop in the ocean, but blog writing is like a ripple which can turn into a wave the longer your stay at it.

How easy is it?

There is a plethora of online tools and website which you can utilize to create your blog. You have the choice of websites which are simple, more catered for people who aren’t tech-savvy, and other websites which are comprehensive. Take, for example, WordPress Hosting, you have the option of keeping it simple, with predetermined backgrounds, wallpapers and banners. The benefit of being a member of such a website is that your website will have a dedicated server and domain, which can replace the generic free account design and have your blog behave like an independent website. With a little elbow grease, you can personalize your blog entirely and with the vast array of tutorials online, it can look professional in no time.

How can you help others?

Dependent on your life experience, you may have knowledge of drugs, diagnosis, and symptom recognizing abilities, life-hacks to cope in public life, controlling stress at school or work, advice on bringing up children, or simply writing about your personal experience. Sometimes, people who have fragile minds, they just need someone to talk to who has been or is currently going through the same challenges they are. You can talk about and prescribed medication you’re taking, the dosage, the length of consumption and what kind of effect it’s having on you. Blog writing can be about anything, and readers want a lot of transparency. So if you’re approached by an advertiser or sponsor for mental health solutions, be respectful and communicate with your followers that you’re being paid. Moreover, if you truly believe in a product, explaining why you’re putting it on your blog won’t be difficult at all, because sharing your experiences is the lifeblood of originality.

A therapeutic escape

We all feel the need to escape from the world and everyday life because prolonged living in a busy lifestyle can be a game of endurance or simmering to a boiling point. Regardless of what goes on in life, a blog is there for you to free yourself from the mundanity of routine and the constraints you have in your life. Blog audiences want purely authentic stories, and this gives you the chance to be totally open and use the online world and the feedback you get as an emotional pincushion. You’re free from judgment as many outbursts or episodes as someone who is mentally ill, can be incredibly embarrassing in public. Some disorders are still, unfortunately, taboo subjects in public discourse and so, if you set up a blog, you’re free to address the matters in whichever way you wish.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

Everyone cares about their friends, that should hardly come as much of a surprise to anyone! Your friends and loved ones are the people around you who make life more than just a day-to-day slog of going to work and coming home again. They are the people you go on adventures with, that you make memories with, so it only makes sense that you would always have your friends best interests at heart, no matter what. Of course, that doesn’t mean that lending a hand to your friend when they need it is easy. In fact, it’s one of the toughest things that you can do. Knowing how to respond to something that a loved one is going through can be a real challenge but, when the only other option is leaving them behind, it’s worth putting in the effort. Here are a few things that you can do to reach out to someone you love in order to offer them the best possible support.

Practical Advice

Sometimes, when you’ve got a friend or loved one who is going through something really difficult, it can be almost impossible for them to see a way out of it. Whether they’re stuck in a job that they hate, they’re dealing with a nasty break-up, or going through any of the other things that can knock a person to the ground; they’re often not in a position to see things practically. In that case, you’re in a great position to offer them a perspective that they simply can’t otherwise achieve. You can help them understand the big picture and see that. However, bad things might seem right now; they won’t be that way forever.

Tough Love

Of course, sometimes the help that you give to your friends needs to be a little harder edged than that. There are plenty of occasions where the problems that someone is having are down to their actions alone. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be there for them. Just that you need to adjust your tactics. While offering them solutions can often be incredibly useful; sometimes what they really need it a kick up the backside to get them back on track. If there’s an aspect of their lifestyle which is hurting them and other people around them, then you may need to be the one to confront them about it, pointing them towards things like the recovery village if they really need support. If things aren’t working out in your friend’s life and it comes down the way that they are behaving; your duty as a friend should be to be to hold them accountable.

Just Listen

Sometimes the best thing you can do is actually the simplest thing: just listen to them. When someone is going through something difficult, it can feel incredibly lonely and frustrating for them. Because of this, just getting to vent to another person, or talk something through can be the most helpful thing of all. Don’t feel like you always have to be there to come up with solutions for them; sometimes just being there so that they can bounce thoughts and feelings off you, coming to their own set of solutions, is the most valuable thing of all.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

Countless people, probably including a lot of our readers, rely on coffee to get up and go in the mornings and throughout the day. This isn’t really surprising considering all the stresses and responsibilities we have to deal with in modern-day life. While there’s nothing wrong with a controlled amount of caffeine in your diet, you really don’t need the world’s most popular drug to feel perky in the mornings. Here are some of the best natural ways to feel more energized and less stressed…

Lighten Up!

Sunlight is nature’s way of telling our body clock that it’s time to start the day. Getting a little more light in your eyes earlier in the day can make a huge difference to how energized you feel throughout the day. Try leaving your bedroom drapes open when you go to bed, or turning on more lights when you get up to simulate sunlight.

Jump Out of Bed

As tempting as it is, resist the urge to hit the “snooze” button and give yourself a few more minutes in your warm, cozy bed. Getting out of bed as soon as you wake up will be much better for your energy levels in the morning.

Take Some Natural Supplements

Taking supplements can be a slippery slope if you’re working out a lot, but there are a number of natural supplements and vitamins that can do wonders for how energized you feel. Maca root, for example, contains amino acids and minerals that are excellent for promoting energy release.

Eat Something Containing Coconut Oil

The triglycerides in coconut oil are a fast-acting source of energy which your body can process much faster than coffee. Go and buy a big container of coconut oil you can drizzle over your food, or a lot of snacks that are rich in it.

Add Protein to your Breakfast

A protein-rich meal in the morning will help your brain cells function, and get rid of that foggy feeling many of us have when we’re trying to get stuck into a day of work. As a bonus, they’ll also repress cravings for food through the rest of the day.

Avoid Late-Night Snacking

If you eat a lot right before you go to bed, it can give you a “food hangover” when you wake up in the morning. If you’re absolutely dying for some kind of food when it’s getting late, then try not to make a meal of it. Choose lighter foods and try to keep your serving under 150 calories.

If you’re sick of feeling sluggish and bleary-eyed every day, then start applying a few of these pointers. You’ll be amazed at what a few tweaks to your lifestyle can do for your energy levels!

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

In order to take care of our health and wellbeing overall; we need to look at several different aspects of our life. It can all be very well hitting the gym to do some weights or taking yourself out for a run every day. But there are other aspects to think about with our health too. One aspect is nutrition. It can be easy to think about going out to exercise, but it is no good if then you just go back home and eat an entire chocolate cake. You might look fit on the outside, but it can mean that you’re unhealthy on the inside. But the main point that I’m going to touch on today is mental wellbeing and stress. The two can be very closely related, so it is important to understand, and then look at ways to cope.

Find Your Trigger

If you feel like you are constantly battling with your stress levels, then it is time to think about what your triggers are. Is it that you feel stressed out by your family situation or with all of the work you have to do? Combined with the normal stresses of everyday life, it could become too much for you. If you can identify what your trigger is, then you look at how to eliminate that from your life. If you feel like you never have time to yourself after a busy day at work, and then you come home to a messy home with lots of chores to do; it can overwhelm. An example of how to cope in this case could be to arrange a babysitter on certain days if needed, so that you can have some time alone or to exercise. It could be that you could get a cleaner; so at least the stress of chores on top of a busy schedule is eliminated.

Find Healthy Ways To Cope

As stress and mental health are so closely linked; it is important to look at how to cope with things that won’t make either of those things worse. It can be easy to just get into a downward spiral, perhaps self-medicating with alcohol or even just food. The issue with either is that they can both have such a detrimental effect on your stress and mental health; as well as physical health. If you have found that this kind of self-medicating has become a problem for you, then you might need to look into alcohol rehab with good reputations to get yourself back on track. Looking for healthier ways to cope is the best to avoid this; so that you can improve and help yourself; not make things worse. It could be exercise or it could be meditation. It might just be reading a book. Just find something that will help, rather than hinder.

Make an Action Plan

You have to sit down and make a plan of action when it comes to your stress levels and mental health. Think about situations that you need to avoid, or what to do if you find yourself getting really stressed out. When you plan ahead, it makes a massive difference.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

It’s important to understand how the mind impacts the body and how the body affects the mind. There is a link there that you might not be aware of and it could be impacted your health right now. There are many ways how we feel can change our body.

For instance, you might be feeling stressed. Stress can have a variety of causes. For instance, you might be dealing with some difficult deadlines at work. If you feel as though you’re not going to make the deadlines, you might think your career is in jeopardy. If that’s the case, it would be naturally to experience increased levels of stress.

What you might not realize is that this stress will have an effect on your body too. Stress can lead to hair loss, weight gain and even damage to the skin. That’s why if you want to stay healthy, it’s in your best interest to try to stay as calm as possible.

Interestingly, physical actions can impact your levels of stress and the way you feel. For instance, exercise has been shown to reduce tension. This might be because it gives the mind something else to focus on. Or, it could be due to the fact that when you exercise your body releases endorphins that do make you feel better, even for a short time. Here are some of the other relationships between the body and the mind.

You Are What You Eat

These words are truer than you might think because diet does affect mood and how we feel. Chocolate, for instance, is a mood elevator and triggers the same endorphins in the mind that are associated with love.

People with bipolar disorder are even advised to stay away from foods with high levels of sugar. A key piece of bipolar depression info is that people with this condition have highs and lows. You might have noticed a similar effect just after you consume something high in sugar. For a while, you feel happier and then you sink again. You can imagine how difficult this can be for someone whose mood is already affected by a medical condition.

Just Smile

Smiling isn’t just about showing someone else that you’re happy. Research shows that by smiling, you actually increase your own happiness levels, even if you’re not actually feeling that great. You might wonder then how there can be any such thing as smiling depression. Well, the effects of smiling on your own happiness levels are quite minimal and certainly won’t completely alter your mood. However, the impact is strong and clear enough to be noticeable on a brain scan.

Calm Your Mind

This connection is particularly interesting. Studies have shown that Buddhist monks who have spent their lives meditating actually form new pathways in the brain and may increase cognitive intelligence. There is still a lot of research occurring investigating this phenomena, but it certainly points to the possibility that meditation can be good for your health.

We hope you find these connections useful because understanding them could have a definite impact on your life and your level of fitness.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.